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2007 Hate Crime Survey - Companion Survey on
Homophobia - Violent Homophobic Attacks
Continuing violence motivated by hatred and prejudice based on sexual
orientation, though largely unseen, is an intimidating day to day reality
for LGBT people in many countries.
Notwithstanding obstacles, incidents of violent hate crimes based on
sexual orientation are reported in the media and in reports by
nongovernmental organizations in many parts of Europe and North America.
One intergovernmental organization, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has reported on such attacks in the context
of its work on hate-motivated crime.[3]
Incident reports provide some basis to establish that homophobic
violence is both frequent and of particular brutality. The fact that
incidents listed below come from a limited number of countries does not
mean that the problem of homophobic violence is more problematic there.
More likely it reflects the fact that NGOs there are more active in
bringing to light such cases. Examples from among the most serious
incidents of 2006 include the following:
- In Portugal, on February 22, 2006, a Brazilian
transgender woman named Gisberta, living in extreme social exclusion in
the city of Oporto was found dead in a pit of water in an abandoned
construction site. A group of boys ranging in age from 10 to 16
confessed to murdering this woman. They subsequently were found to have
previously harassed and insulted her. This was followed by more serious
violence when on February 19, they entered the building in which she was
living, tied her up, gagged and beat her, and anally sodomized her with
sticks. They repeated this torture on two subsequent nights, finally
throwing her body into a pit of water in the morning hours of February
22 in an apparent attempt to conceal the crime.[4] Although Portugal has
criminal legislation defining bias as an aggravating circumstance in the
commission of homicide and assault, it does not explicitly extend to
gender identity and was not invoked in the course of the prosecution of
this case.[5]
- In the United States, on February 2, 2006, an
18-year-old male wounded three persons in an attack at a New Bedford,
Massachusetts gay bar. Shortly after asking the bartender if it was a
gay bar, the man began attacking bar patrons, first with a hatchet and
then by opening fire on others with a gun. One person suffered deep cuts
on his head and was shot in the face, and two others were shot in the
back and chest.[6] The assailant then fled the bar and later the state,
and died on February 6 following a shootout with Arkansas police who
tried to arrest him.[7] At the time of the assailant's death, police
were investigating the assault as a hate crime.
- Also in the United States, in New York City, on
June 11, 2006, Kevin Aviance, a singer, was attacked by a group of six
or seven men yelling anti-gay slurs. Aviance was thrown on the ground,
beaten and objects were thrown at him. He suffered a broken jaw and
required surgery as a result of the attack. Police arrested and charged
four men with first-degree assault as a hate crime.[8]
Such cases of serious violence - at least those that receive broad
media coverage - are fortunately still relatively rare, although lesser
levels of assault and harassment against individuals as well as vandalism
against homes of and venues frequented by gays and lesbians are by most
accounts commonplace, even though official documentation of such incidents
is limited. Some examples from 2006 include:
- In Croatia, on March 9, several people entered a
club, where a private party had been organized by a gay and lesbian
organization, and attacked a number of those present with their fists
and with glass bottles. The assailants fled upon arrival of the police.
Five of the victims were taken to the hospital to be treated for
injuries.[9]
- In Estonia, in June, Hans Glaubitz, who was
appointed as Dutch Ambassador to Estonia in September 2005, resigned
from his post on the grounds that he and his black partner were
regularly subjected to racist and homophobic abuse on the streets there.
Mr. Glaubitz commented that "Estonian society is far from ready for two
men, particularly if one of them is black."[10]
- In France, on April 16, two gay men who were
waiting at a bus stop, hand in hand, were beaten up by two other men who
passed by in a car. Upon their arrest, the attackers told the police:
"these are not men. They deserve the bomb," and "If nobody had come in
between us, we would have terminated them."[11]
- In Germany, in Berlin, on July 26,
a gay man was followed into an area in the Tiergarten known as a meeting
place for gay men. A group of men then followed, first blinding him with
flashlights, and then beating him on the head with a glass bottle and
attacking him with a heavy tree branch. The victim was taken to the
hospital having sustained a deep cut on his head, a fractured arm and
bruises on his hip.[12]
- In the United Kingdom, in Leicester, in the last
three months of 2006, windows were smashed on several occasions at a bar
that was frequented by gay clientele. A gang of young men armed with
hammers and baseball bats, reportedly responsible for the damage to the
bar, also verbally abused customers entering and exiting.[13]
- In the United States, in the state of Maine, on
July 3, two teenage boys broke into the house of a lesbian couple in the
town of Poland, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage and writing
anti-gay slurs on the walls.[14]
Executive Summary |
Introduction |
Violent Homophobic Attacks |
Assaults on Gay Pride Parades and Events in Eastern Europe |
Statistics on Violence based on Sexual Orientation |
Endnotes
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